Horseback Riding with Swan Mountain Outfitters

August 2016 - Summer Road Trip 2016 Part 4: Horseback Riding with Swan Mountain Outfitters

After a wonderful first experience white water rafting, we headed to Swan Mountain Outfitters, just outside of West Glacier's entrance, for the 2 hour glacier gateway horseback ride. Taylor was super excited for this adventure. You see, she had just come from her first girl scouts camp a week before this trip and she fell in love with horses. She had been looking forward to this ride all summer long and could not stop asking when we were gonna do the horse rides. Well here we are! 😀

Would you look at that smile!

As we got in, we geared up and were introduced to our own horses. The gal went over all of the important safety information and up we went on our horses.

Once we were all set, we headed out to hit the trail. No phones or cameras were allowed to be out on the ride for the safety of the riders so we cant share those moments with pictures.

We took it slow and easy through the trail, enjoying the beautiful scenery around us. Our guide was first and she led us through with Taylor behind her, then Keoni, Shane, me and two others. We passed through some prime bear habitat (berries...lots of berries and forestry) but did not get to see one. I wished we did (from a distance of course). But, we did come across a section of the trail called Bear Claw. It's called Bear Claw because there is a huge bear claw marking on a pine tree trunk. As we passed it I wondered if there was something up that tree that made that bear angry to make such a deep imprint on that tree.

Taylor, Keoni and Shane did very well on their horses managing to keep them on the trail. My horse on the other hand, gave me a hard time. He neglected to obey my commands and would stop at every chance he could and indulge in some perennial buttercups. These buttercups are a yellowish flower that kinda looks like the yellow dandelion flower. They are poisonous to horses! So after having too many stops, our guide had to put the mask of shame on my poor horse so that he wouldnt get sick. He wore it the rest of the trail. Poor guy.

The trail ride was beautiful. We got to see Strawberry and Rainwater Mountains, as well as some glimpses of the snow capped peaks of Glacier National Park. We learned a lot from our guide, including the different types of trees, berries and habitat that was on the trail.

As our ride came to an end, we got off our horses and talked story a bit with our guide and met some of the other animals at the corral.